Anger Is Fruitless

Keith Olbermann appears in some ways a light in the long dark tunnel. He voices the outrage that seems to be missing regarding the genocide and wanton destruction that is the policy of the group of people who hide the responsibility for their actions behind the fiction they call "the government of the United States." But I have another view on it. In this blogpost, Classically Liberal says, "Keith Olbermann's commentary on the Bush surge in Vietnam, I mean Iraq, was perfect. No one could have said it better. Watch the whole thing here. Just remember how contemptable is this petty little man in the White House" (providing a link to a YouTube post of Mr. Olbermann's commentary). I went there and watched . . . . It struck me part way through Mr. Olbermann's articulate tirade (against the insane policies of Mr. Bush and his followers) that his anger was only justified by the fact that he was foolish enough to have believed in the false idea of "proper authority" in the first place. As though Mr. Bush, or anyone, can somehow or other acquire the control and responsibility for the life, choices, and actions of another person, or an entire group of them. Had Olbermann been talking about some raving lunatic spouting insanities at the sky in the middle of a big-city park, I doubt that he would have shown such depth of anger, but rather would have exposed it for what it was, the comedy that is the irrationality of human minds. But no . . . Mr. Olbermann is not amused, he is outraged. I propose that his outrage should more properly be directed inwardly at the one who foolishly relinquished mental responsibility for his own life to another--another who had the arrogance, audacity and chutzpah to claim the wisdom and, more importantly, the "proper authority," to direct the lives of others. Mr. Bush is not the buffoon. The buffoon is he who believes in "the state," who believes that it is acceptable and proper for some people to control, direct, and subjugate others, himself included. Betrayed by his own foolish belief in the religion of state, he lashes out at those that he was corrupt enough to relinquish his power to--instead of standing up and taking responsibility for being rational. Mr. Bush did not betray Mr. Olbermann; Mr. Olbermann betrayed Mr. Olbermann. Of course he is certainly not alone in this. We most all do this to one extent or another (else how could I recognize it so well?). But blaming our failings on others is but to continue the pathology. Until we stand up and shoulder our own responsibilities for our lives, choices, and actions, we will get exactly what we deserve: being treated as children. There is no one else to blame. It occurs to me that anger is what we feel when we are faced with the reality that something or someone is different from the story we had told ourselves--and we are unwilling to accept responsibility for our error. Anger is fruitless--not only fruitless, it diverts us from reality. It is honest circumspection which is required. (A sense of humor is helpful as well, for we are all, as Michael, the Martian in Robert A. Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land," learned, just human beings.)